2015-16 NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl 50

Are you ready for some playoff football betting? Ready or not, the games start in a couple of days. There are only 11 games left in this NFL season and only a month left until the Super Bowl.

Wild Card Weekend

The action starts this Saturday as the AFC Wild Card games are played. The Kansas City Chiefs play at the Houston Texans and the Pittsburgh Steelers play at the Cincinnati Bengals. On Sunday, its the NFC’s turn as the Seattle Seahawks play at the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers play at the Washington Redskins. All four road teams are currently favored to win.

Kansas City is trying to win their first playoff game in 9 tries dating back to 1994. They are currently on a 10 game winning streak and are playing the team with the worst odds of winning the Super Bowl out of the 12 playoff teams. They are a 3.5 point favorite in the sportsbooks. Overall, the Chiefs have a better offense led by their rushing attack. The two teams are pretty evenly matched up defensively. This has the makings of a low scoring game which is supported by the over/under total of 40 points.

Pittsburgh might be the 6th seed in the AFC, but they have a potent passing offense that can keep up with any team on that side of the playoff bracket. They are facing the Cincinnati Bengals team that is mired in their own playoff losing streak dating back to 1991. They are going to play this game without their starting QB Andy Dalton. This is the main reason why the Bengals are 3 point underdogs. Otherwise, these two teams are very evenly matched up.

Seattle is starting to become the New England of the NFC. They are going to be favored a majority of the time based on how well they have played in the playoffs over the past few seasons. The Seahawks are a 6 point favorite at Minnesota based on their potent offense over the last half of the season. Minnesota may be 11-5, but the team has one major weakness that Seattle was able to exploit in a Week 13 matchup. The Vikings are a team that plays well in the lead and they don’t have the offense to make much of a comeback.

Green Bay and Washington will be a very interesting game. Washington had a 4 game winning streak to make it to 9-7 after a very lackluster start to the season. Green Bay has not been playing well over the second half of the season. However, the Packers are a 1 point favorite and still have Aaron Rodgers at the helm, even if he has only been a shell of his normal self behind a bad offensive line. This game will feature Green Bay’s running game against the passing attack of the Redskins. Whichever defense can shut down the others plan of attack will win the day.

Looking Ahead

In contrast to the 4 Wild Card games, all four teams that receive the first round bye will be favored in their matchups. If all of the road teams that are favored in the first round win, it means the top seeds will have tougher games compared to the 2nd seed on both sides.

The 15-1 Carolina Panthers are likely to face Seattle in a game that will be tightly contested between two highly potent offenses. The Denver Broncos would likely be facing the Steelers who already proved that they can beat the number 1 ranked defense in the NFL.

The Arizona Cardinals would likely face the winner of Washington and Green Bay. This is a much more favorable match up for them to get to the Conference Championship game. New England is always going to be a heavy favorite at home regardless of whichever team they are matched up against. The worst case for the Patriots is a Kansas City team which will have to try to exploit the offensive line problems that have surfaced over the stretch for New England.

As far as which teams are most likely to make the Super Bowl, the NFC is pretty much a three horse race with Carolina, Arizona and Seattle all being almost even odds of making the big game. On the AFC side, New England and Denver are going to be the favorites. The odds on one of the other 7 remaining teams making the Super Bowl are pretty slim.

If you are a betting man, you should take a look at this super bowl site to see all of the odds as the big game gets closer. As for my prediction, I think that Arizona will face off against Denver. The Cardinals have one of the best combinations of offense and defense in the league and the Broncos have the best defense and a quarterback in Peyton Manning that will be trying to secure his legacy in what might be his last season.

In this matchup, Arizona might be a slight favorite to win. The game will likely be decided late in the 4th quarter and it could be a crazy finish like the 2008 Super Bowl which the Cardinals lost in the waning seconds. Denver will have to ride their top ranked secondary in order to shut down the Cardinals passing attack. Final score – Denver 27, Arizona 24